STOW, Ohio — This past fall, Dodge announced it would be ceasing production of the Charger and Challenger models in 2023—but one final special edition model of the Challenger marks the end of an era and has Northeast Ohio written all over it.
At Mickey Thompson Tires and Wheels in Stow, Ohio, performance tires are the specialty. In an area filled with tires, Mickey Thompson stands out with a niche—off-roading and drag racing tires. The company's president, Dominick Montouri, takes pride in that.
"This is a rubber capital of the world... you think of all the performance tracks, you think of Summit Racing down the street, or you think of JEGS performance that's also based in Columbus, Ohio. This is still one of the cradles of performance," Montouri said."We've never been a mass-market company. We've always been a performance aftermarket. So in the niche segments is where we do our best work in—lifted, modified vehicles. Everything's purpose-built, all-around performance. How do we take the most power that a vehicle can generate, put that to the ground and get the maximum performance?"
Heather Tausch, the senior director of marketing for Mickey Thompson Tires, joked about how much Montouri makes that a point, but shared a similar sentiment about the specialty their company has rallied around.
"We're actually known for our traction. Dominic likes to say all the time, 'we are not a tire company, we're a traction company.' And we actually have a nickname in the market—Sticky Mickeys—because they stick to the road," Tausch said.
Mickey Thompson Tires has been in business for 60 years, which was established and based in Northeast Ohio in 1963. As fitting for an anniversary celebration, the company has a new venture that may be its biggest to date.
The new and final Challenger—the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170—was unveiled Tuesday at Dodge "Last Call" in Las Vegas. The vehicle was brought in by helicopter and then taken on the track for demos.
It was a dramatic display, but for good reason—it's a record-breaking car. It's the fastest 0-60 production car in the world.
"It does 0-60 in 1.66 seconds," Montouri said. "It takes the 1025 horsepower that the car generates and the 945 foot pounds of torque and actually puts it to the ground and allows it to launch forward. It pulls two G's at launch. The space shuttle is three G's. This pulls two G's at the starting line."
The record-breaking vehicle is carried on Mickey Thompson Tires—not just literally. Without Mickey Thompson Tires, this vehicle wouldn't exist the way that it does.
Dodge approached Mickey Thompson Tires in 2020 about a tire they had seen success with on drag strips. They wanted to know how their tires were able to get such quick times. That established a relationship that saw the two companies working together in testing and development to modify the ET Street R for the Demon 170.
"The challenger Demon 170 was not even approved internally at Dodge until we had actually developed this tire and finalized the build of this tire and it had been set for nine months," Tausch said. "It was actually pretty cool because the head of the engineering group at SRT told me, 'If we don't have the tire, we don't have the car. We cannot get the performance out of the car if you don't have this tire.'"
Designed around the design of Mickey Thompson Tires new product, the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 is as quick as it is because of the wheels underneath it.
For Montouri and Tausch, this feat is something they and their team at Mickey Thompson Tires are beyond proud of. This piece of history will now forever be rooted in Northeast Ohio history.
"This was 60 years in the making. Never happened before for us, and here it did and not just any car—the quickest production car ever made. That’s an incredible story and that’s a Northeast Ohio story," Montouri said. "That's what makes this company so special, that it was started by enthusiast, this building's filled with enthusiasts, and that's what drives us every day is the passion around this space."
The 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 will see limited production, with about 3,300 vehicles built—3,000 in the United States and 300 in Canada. Prices will start at $96,666.
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